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India rape suspects appear in court

Ashok Sharma

Five suspects, their faces covered with woollen caps, have arrived at a New Delhi court for the start of their trial for the rape and murder of a young woman on a bus.

Police were on alert outside the sprawling court complex in south New Delhi on Thursday as the men arrived.

Inside, about 30 policemen blocked access to the courtroom, while scores of journalists and curious onlookers crowded the hallway.

The suspects were whisked into the courtroom by a phalanx of armed policemen for the start of the trial, which will be held in a closed court room after Judge Yogesh Khanna denied a defence motion to make the proceedings public.

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A sixth suspect says he is a juvenile and is expected to be tried in a juvenile court.

Police say the victim and a male friend were attacked after boarding a bus on December 16. The attackers beat the man and raped the woman, inflicting massive internal injuries with a metal bar, police said.

The victims were dumped naked on the roadside, and the woman died two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.